Jesse Darling

Jesse Darling (b. Oxford, UK) is a vital and uncompromising voice in contemporary art. Working across sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, and text, Darling’s practice interrogates the structures—both physical and ideological—that shape lived experience. Their work brings a raw, often visceral materiality to questions of identity, authority, faith, and the precarity of the body, establishing them as a defining artist of their generation.

Darling’s significance lies not only in their visual language but in their sustained critical engagement with the social and political urgencies of our time. Their art refuses perfection and polish, instead foregrounding fragility, collapse, and the handmade as sites of resistance. Bent metal railings, crumbling altars, broken bureaucratic signs—Darling’s sculptural vocabulary critiques systems of control while revealing the humanity within them. Their work is as much about survival as it is about critique, asserting the resilience of bodies and communities historically marginalized or policed.

A key figure in contemporary queer art, Darling articulates a politics of embodiment that is both deeply personal and sharply analytical. They challenge dominant narratives of health, productivity, and coherence, instead offering space for vulnerability, multiplicity, and repair. Their work resonates powerfully in a moment marked by institutional instability and cultural reckoning, making them not only relevant but essential.

Darling’s recognition as the winner of the 2023 Turner Prize—awarded for their presentation at the Camden Art Centre—cemented their position as a major force in British and international art. Their work has been exhibited widely, including at Tate Britain, MoMA PS1, and the Venice Biennale, and is held in numerous public and private collections. Yet what distinguishes Darling is not only their institutional acclaim but their commitment to an art that remains radically intimate, materially grounded, and socially attuned.

Jesse Darling lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo shows include: Gravity Road, Kunsteverein Freiburg, Freiburg (2020); Selva Oscura, Galerie Sultana, Paris (2019); Cervé, La Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille (2019), The Ballad of Saint Jerome, ART NOW, Tate Britain, London (2018); Support Level, Chapter Gallery, New York (2018) and Armes Blanches, Galerie Sultana, Paris (2017).  Recent group shows include: Crip Time, Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2021); Three, Four Trees, E.A. Shared Space, Tbilisi, (2020); A Fine Line, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen (2020); Transcorporealities, Museum Ludwig, 01Cologne (2019); May You Live in Interesting Times, 58th Venice Biennale, Venice (2019); POSTCENTRAL, Nome Gallery, Berlin (2019); Body Splits, SALTS, Basel (2019); more of an avalanche, Wysing Art Centre (2018) and An unpredictable expression of human potential, Beirut Art Centre for Sharjah Biennale, Beirut (2017).